The latest information on the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre project being taking forward in Innerleithen.

We plan to provide key updates to ensure the community is kept fully informed on this exciting project.

Latest news 

2 October 2025 - UK Government Scotland Office Minister Kirsty McNeill has visited Innerleithen to mark the start of enabling works to turn a former mill site into a world-leading Mountain Bike Innovation Centre. Read more here. 

25 September 2025 - the first community newsletter has been shared with neighbours to update them on the upcoming enabling works at Caerlee Mill. It is available to read here.

17 September 2025 - Ahead of the start of the demolition and enabling works beginning at Caerlee Mill site, a local residents meeting will be held on Thursday 25 September at 6pm to 7pm in the Memorial Hall, Innerleithen to provide more details on the works.

We will lead the meeting alongside main contractor Morrison Construction.

3 September 2025 - The timetable for the new Mountain Bike Innovation Centre has been shared, after exciting new plans were approved for the facility.

A planning application submitted in June for the new Centre at Caerlee Mill in Innerleithen was given the green light by Scottish Borders Council on Wednesday 3 September. 

The demolition and enabling works are due to begin in October 2025, which will be led by delivery partner Hub South East Scotland and its main contractor Morrison Construction, which will undertake all building works. 

Construction of the new building is then due to start in March 2026, with the aim for the new Mountain Bike Innovation Centre to open its doors in 2027. 

More details here.

Summer 2025 - We have issued a reminder to local people to not enter the Caerlee Mill site.

While we carried out significant work over the last year to make the overall site safe, it is still very dangerous for people to be within the site and especially the main building.

We have re-enforced the site perimeter fencing and boarding on the main building, and installed CCTV which is remotely monitored. 

A new alarm system has also been installed, and we continue to carry out regular site safety inspections, with prominent and appropriate signage in place. 

If any members of the public see someone entering the site, they should firstly call the police.

Members of the public who notice anything of concern at Caerlee Mill, which is not an emergency, should email us at MTB@sose.scot. 

10 June 2025 - Exciting plans for a new Mountain Bike Innovation Centre has been unveiled, including details on the range of facilities the proposed new building will offer. More details available. 

30 April 2025 - First Tracks, the UK’s first dedicated incubator programme for entrepreneurs in the cycling and outdoor sectors has been hailed a success by its participants.

24 April 2025 - The next community drop-in session for the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre project will take place on Tuesday 6 May from 6pm to 8pm in the Memorial Hall, Innerleithen.

This event will provide an opportunity to look at the designs for the new Centre building, ahead of the planning application being submitted, and provide us and architects Oberlanders with feedback. 

17 April 2025 - The Mountain Bike Innovation Centre project has taken a major step forward with permission granted to remove the main building on the Caerlee Mill site.

The approval of the plans to demolish the building paves the way for South of Scotland Enterprise to submit a planning application to build a new Centre on the same site in Innerleithen. 

The Mountain Bike Innovation Centre will be funded by a £19million investment from the UK Government as part of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, including £4m to be allocated towards the Tweed Valley Bike Park and Trail Lab. 

Further discussion of the demolition process will take place with local residents to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum.

A planning application to build a new Centre is currently being prepared.

11 March 2025 - The Frequently Asked Questions section of this webpage have been updated. The deadline for providing a comment on the demolition application for the main building at Caerlee Mill is Thursday 13 March.

13 February 2025 - The application for listed building consent for the demolition of the main building at Caerlee Mill has been submitted and is now available to view on Scottish Borders Council’s online planning portal.

We are also working on a seperate planning application to design a new Mountain Bike Innovation Centre building on the site.

For the demolition application to be successful there needs to be clarity on what the future of the site looks like.

The new proposed designs will be submitted after further public consultation.

20 December - Thank you to everyone who took part in our two engagement events in December 2024.

Over 100 people attended both the public meeting on 5 December and drop-in session on 11 December. The feedback received was extremely helpful and will allow us to continue to move forward with the project.

As indicated in the engagement events, the revised proposal is to seek approval to demolish the main building on the Caerlee Mill site.

If approved, a planning application would then be submitted later in 2025 for a new Mountain Bike Innovation Centre in its place.

Following a meeting with consultees including Historic Environment Scotland, we are now expecting to submit the demolition application in early 2025 to allow additional information to be provided. This in turn should speed up the overall demolition and planning application process.

5 December - Fresh plans have been shared with the local community aimed at taking forward the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre project at the Caerlee Mill site.

The revised proposals will see the removal of the main building on the Caerlee Mill site - with a demolition application due to be submitted next week - which will then allow a new building to house the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre on the same site to be created.

The commitment was shared with the local community at the latest public meeting we held in the town on Thursday 5 December.

The news release issued on 5 December is available to read here.

SOSE also set out what happens next, which includes a further public engagement event.

The news release issued on Tuesday 24 September is available here.

Images of Caerlee Mill 

Images highlighting the significant issues within the Caerlee Mill building were shared at the public meeting on 23 September. Some of the images are available to view here. 

FAQs

The Mountain Bike Innovation Centre will support Scottish, UK and international companies to develop innovative products and services and train and test athletes within the mountain biking and wider cycling sector.

It is being taken forward by South of Scotland Enterprise with support from Scottish Borders Council and Edinburgh Napier University.

The Centre will focus on research and development and offer a place for businesses - both local and international – to showcase their innovative products in the heart of the UK’s leading mountain bike destination.

The project will also host academics and research by Edinburgh Napier University across the cycling sector.

The Centre will include:

  • Bike engineering
  • Workshop space
  • Brand experience units
  • Events space
  • Offices
  • Meeting rooms
  • Teaching space. 

There will be a series of benefits for the Scottish Borders.

These include a predicted £138million contribution into the local economy and creation of over 400 jobs in the region over a ten year period.

The Mountain Bike Innovation Centre will be funded by a £19million investment from the UK Government as part of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, including £4million to be allocated towards the Tweed Valley Bike Park and Trail Lab.

This funding is available, subject to the Full Business Case being completed and approved.

We have committed up to £5.4m of capital funding. However this is not expecting to spent in full.

This is due to expected lower costs of creating a new centre.

The Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal was signed in March 2021.

The £350million investment in the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal, from the UK and Scottish Governments, is made up of £150million for Scotland (£85million from the Scottish Government and £65million from the UK Government) and up to £200million for England from the UK Government. This will be supported by over £100million of funding from local partners.

The Mountain Bike Innovation Centre is expected to secure the Borderlands funding at the end of 2025, subject to the Full Business Case being completed and approved through the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal.

If approved any later than this will risk the funding.

If the demolition application is successful this will allow the first portion of funds to be drawn down in early 2026.  

Once the funding is secured, the project must spend the funds by the end of March 2031.

SOSE has so far spent £2.3million to:

• Purchase the site
• Intrusive early construction works which discovered the structural issues with the building, decontaminated the site and made it safe. Most of these works were required regardless of how the site is taken forward.
• Legal costs
•  Achieving planning permission, listed building consent and building warrant
• Ongoing costs such as insurance to keep the site safe

Borderlands funding will only be available subject to the Full Business Case being completed and approved, so has not yet been used.

The decision was made due to both structural and economic concerns.

We continue to work with members of the local community to preserve some heritage aspects of the site for the future.

It is estimated a new build Mountain Bike Innovation Centre, if built on the same site, will cost around £15million.

This includes the costs spent to date and demolition costs. This is half the approximate £30million to renovate the current mill building.

Demolition and enabling works are now underway.

Construction of the new building is due to start in March 2026, subject to approval of a final business case, with the aim for the new Mountain Bike Innovation Centre opening its doors in 2027. 

The revised proposals have been agreed following public meetings on 23 September and 5 December and a community survey, with demolition of the mill and construction of a new Centre in its place being the most popular of the available options.

We are proposing to retain the two traditional whinstone outbuildings and the chimney.

While we could use the entire site for the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre, the small engine shed nearest the road had only been earmarked as storage on the future site.

As a result, if any community group can present a viable, sustainable higher value use for this building that ideally includes the site’s heritage, then we will consider this alternative use and likely support this. 

We have been showing local councillors and community groups around the engine shed to let them see the space which is available.

We carried out appropriate surveys during the 12 months before our purchase of Caerlee Mill. 

However, it was only once the site was purchased, and after thorough and intrusive building investigations were carried out, that we were was able to find out the full extent of the structural issues.

While we carried out significant work over the last year to make the overall site safe, it is still very dangerous for people to be within the site and especially the main building.

We have re-enforced the site perimeter fencing and boarding on the main building, and installed CCTV which is remotely monitored. 

A new alarm system has also been installed, and we continue to carry out regular site safety inspections, with prominent and appropriate signage in place. 

If any members of the public see someone entering the site, they should firstly call the police.

Members of the public who notice anything of concern at Caerlee Mill, which is not an emergency, should email us at MTB@sose.scot. 

The early works carried out by main contractor Morrison Construction between December 2023 to May 2024 managed to successfully decontaminate the site and made it safe.

Most of these works were required, regardless of how the site is taken forward.

Actions included:

  • Large amounts of asbestos found and fully removed
  • The main building being fully secured 
  • Limited demolitions and wider site clearance of materials and waste left over 
  • Over 100 test pits dug and monitored to identify the structure of foundations, soil conditions and for wider contaminants 
  • Every piece of timber within the building investigated 
  • Rain water pipes reinstated and roof repaired to prevent ongoing deterioration 

Demolition and enabling works got underway in October 2025.

Plans for the Bike Park are being developed by a commercial partner so we cannot comment on their behalf at this stage.

However, we have earmarked at least £4million of grant funding towards the private sector Bike Park operator. 

Contact us

  • If you have any questions on the Mountain Bike Innovation Centre or the Caerlee Mill site which are not answered on this page, please email mtb@sose.scot.
  • For any enquiries regarding cycling industry support please also email mtb@sose.scot
  • For research or innovation services in the sector please email our partners at Edinburgh Napier University - mtb@napier.ac.uk 
  • Should any neighbours have a concern with the Caerlee Mill site, they can phone our Ettrick Riverside office on 01750 505 000 during office hours, or if an emergency and out of office hours, phone 01480 484 352.